This Quick and Easy Chicken Marinate is the fast way to the best healthy chicken on the grill or in the oven. Perfect on a salad or simple dinner.
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Bursting with outstanding lemon garlic flavor, they will make a great salad topping, served in a sandwich or on a plate.
We all know that skinless boneless chicken breast can be tasteless. Made with lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, and a few other ingredients, this marinade delivers a wonderful taste that will take your chicken to the next level.
This could easily be a weeknight dinner recipe since 20-30 in the marinade works well—just enough time to heat, clean, and oil the grill. It will fit a healthy diet like a low-calorie or low-fat diet or even a low-carb keto diet.
Serve these flavorful marinated chicken breasts on a salad, in a sandwich, or with Convection Oven French Fries using fresh or frozen fries, Simple Spinach Salad with bacon, or Grilled Mixed Vegetables.
Check out some other flavorful chicken recipes, like Garlic Lemon Butter Marinaded Grilled Chicken Breast, Grilled Buttermilk Chicken, Grilled Honey Garlic Chicken, or Italian Grilled Chicken Breasts.
Ingredients for Chicken Marinade
- Soy sauce - low sodium preferred
- Brown sugar
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Salt—if not brining chicken
👨🍳How to Make and Use Chicken Marinade
- Trim and flatten chicken breasts to ¾ inch and brine (optional) before adding to the marinade. Brine if you wish.
- In a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine the chicken.
- Add the chicken to the marinade and refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
- Remove leaving the marinade on the chicken for cooking—do not rinse or pat off. Cook on the grill or in the oven.
🐓How to Cook Marinaded Chicken
Try to use chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. If thicker than ¾ inches, use a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan to even them out. Chicken thighs can be used—see FAQs.
🔥How to grill marinated chicken breasts
- Clean and oil grates. Preheat the grill to 450° surface temperature.
- Grill and flip every 5 minutes until you reach 165° internal temperature—about 10 minutes.
- For a more detailed discussion, please see How to Grill Chicken Breast on a Gas Grill.
If you have questions about controlling your grill temperature, please check my Guide to Controlling Grill Temperature.
♨️How to oven-bake chicken breasts
- Preheat the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
- Place them in a shallow baking dish and bake to 165° internal temperature—about 25 minutes.
- More details at How to Bake Chicken Breasts in a Convection Oven.
Cooking time is dependent on the thickness and size of the chicken. With an average size (about 10 oz) of chicken breast and a 400° oven, about 25-30 minutes is a good estimate to reach a 165° internal temperature—so check a little early.
❓FAQs
Yes. Chicken thighs should be skinless, but bone-in or boneless will both work. Cook to an internal temperature of 185° instead of 165° for the breasts.
Skinless chicken breasts can quickly dry during cooking, especially if previously frozen. So if you have time to brine, you should for moister results.
A suggested brine would be two cups of water and one tablespoon of table salt for an hour or two. If you brine, rinse and skip the salt before brushing with the honey mixture.
All salt is not equal in volume due to crystal size. 1 teaspoon table salt = 1 ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt = 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Marinades are generally made of oil, acid, herbs, and spices. In my house, you also must add garlic. Then, it is used to soak various types of meat to transfer the flavors—an excellent, quick, and easy enhancement to many kinds of meat.
For safety, once used, marinades should be considered contaminated and discarded. If you want the marinade to brush the meat during cooking, reserve a small amount ahead if there is enough, or make a bit extra.
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Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat and thin to ¾ inch thick with a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan—for safety, protect yourself with plastic wrap or a large ziplock bag.
Optional chicken brine: If you have time, brine is always good for skinless boneless chicken breasts. A brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the marinade recipe and carefully rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.
Mix the marinade a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine.
Add chicken to the marinade, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
Remove breasts from the marinade, do not rinse off the marinade. Cook on the grill or oven-bake to 165° internal temperature.
📖 Recipe
Quick and Easy Chicken Marinade
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Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts - well trimmed
Marinade
- ¼ cup soy sauce - low sodium preferred
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- ½ teaspoon salt
Optional Brine
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoons salt
Instructions
- Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat and thin to ¾ inch thick with a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan—for safety, protect yourself with plastic wrap or a large ziplock bag.
- Optional chicken brine: If you have time, brine is always good for skinless boneless chicken breasts. A brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the marinade recipe and carefully rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.
- Mix the marinade in a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container and combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine. Add chicken to the marinade, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
- Remove breasts from the marinade, do not rinse off the marinade. Cook on the grill or oven-bake to 165° internal temperature. See cooking instructions in the post.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Like most chicken recipes, the cooking temperature and final temperature are critical.
- Try to use chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. Even them out some with a meat mallet if needed. Maximum thickness of ¾ of an inch.
- Brining is optional but will give more moist results. As little as 20 minutes will give good results, but 30-120 minutes refrigerated is suggested. Longer can start to affect the texture.
- Once used, the marinade should be discarded. If you want to brush some on during cooking, reserve a small amount or make more.
- Both the grill time and oven time can vary by the thickness of the chicken and the exact cooking temperature. So check the internal temperature a bit earlier than you think.
- An internal temperature in the thickest part of the chicken of 165° is the minimum safe temperature.
- Nutrition is calculated without brine, with 10% of marinade absorbed and a 10 oz. skinless boneless chicken breast.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally published April 17, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Dave says
At the end you said you might try to thicken what juice is left and gave ingredients. What are you using that for? Placing in the Instapot to cook the chicken for the 8 minutes or for a gravy for the chicken?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Dave,
Welcome to the blog.
Just a fast note to other readers. Dave is referring to a previous comment and not the recipe or the post above.
Dan
Mr Stewart says
I am going to try using this recipe using a instapot (electric pressure cooker) & a 10lb bag of leg quarters after I removed the skin and de-bone it all. I am making 3 cups of rice in the pot first and setting it aside. Then after letting the chicken marinade in the refrigerator for at least and hour, maybe two, I will put it all in to the pot and cook it 8 minutes on high. While doing all of that I will whip up some sriracha green beans in the skillet. I might try to thicken what juice is left in the pot after cooking with a tablespoon or two of corn starch and equal parts cold water slowly stirred in to the juices and brought to a boil to thicken.
DrDan says
Welcome to the blog.
Sounds like a well thought out plan that should work great. I don't use my instapot much. My mother had a few "accidents" with her pressure cooker and I'm not in a hurry.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Robert says
I broke down a whole chicken last night, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, two thighs, then I left both breasts on the bone. I doubled the recipe, brined the whole thing for 30 minutes, then marinade for 30. I had to grill everything for 10 -15 min longer, but my god did this turn out amazing. I fed a family of 5 ( 3 kids - 8,6,3) and we ran out of chicken. EVERYONE at the table asked to have more. This recipe was a keeper and goes into the family recipe book. Luckily my wife keeps all of the ingredients in the house (we had to make our own brown sugar, but that wasn't that hard) Truly AMAZING.
scott l says
Awesome looking marinade recipe...excited to try it, thought I was going to be doing so tonight, but wifey just informed of a change in plans...lol.
Steve says
Dr. Dan, are you closing the lid when grilling the chicken?
DrDan says
Closed. General rule: Less than 1/2 inch (fish) is open. 1/2-1 inch can be open but it is much harder control and over 1 inch is always closed. So always assume closed unless otherwise stated. It is open in the photos just to get the photos.
Elizabeth says
Thank you, Dr. Dan...this sounds amazing! If I'm grilling 4 Breasts, was wondering if I should double all of the ingredients, both for Brine and Marinade?
DrDan says
The brine is fine for 4 breasts. The marinade will need to increase by 50-100%
Dan
Megan says
Amazing marinade! Had chicken breast in fridge and needed something to do with them and stumbled across this. Quick and easy. I did this before going to work at 9am, and let it sit all day and didn't cook it till about 8pm. The longer the better. Since I had 5 breasts I upped the number in the recipe but didn't use any salt since the soy sauce is salty enough and it came out amazing! Definitely going to use again.
DrDan says
Hi Megan,
This is one of those recipes I forget about for a year then use it over and over again. Then I forget about it.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Michelle Johnson says
Hi! I'm trying this tonight. Have the breasts brining right now (for two hours), then I'll marinade for two hours. Do I have to rinse the breasts after brining? I usually brine my whole turkeys and typically rinse... I'm so excited to taste this! Thanks Dr Dan!
DrDan says
Hi Michelle,
Sorry for the delayed reply. Always rinse off a brine. If a brine did it's job, you already have some extra salt. No need to add to that.
Dan